


Strike Team Delta

by CarpentryandDarkMagic



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-29
Packaged: 2018-04-18 00:36:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4685546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarpentryandDarkMagic/pseuds/CarpentryandDarkMagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Black Widow, Hawkeye and Steve are tasked with finding out everything they can about the Cult of Ten Rings and their mythical leader The Mandarin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strike Team Delta

**Author's Note:**

> I intend to play fast and loose with movie canon here. Ex: Betty Ross is present and modelled somewhat after the character in The Ultimates, including having been part of the super soldier trials that made her Red She Hulk. I'll address canon-divergence as it comes up, chapter by chapter.

Steve’s quarters were blessedly quiet after the crackle of an earpiece and the bloodrush of battle. He had a cup of hot tea and a book open on his knee when he heard Friday’s now-familiar voice chime from overhead.

“Captain Rogers, Mr Stark requests a meeting in Briefing Room C.”

“Of course he does.” Steve sighed, exasperated, and then winced. “Sorry. Thank you Friday.”

“Sir.”

Steve would be the first to say he knew nothing about the AIs programming - how she worked - but since she was such a regular part of everyday life around the complex (and especially since the “birth” of the Vision) he found himself treating her more and more like just another team mate.

In the elevator he met a bleary-eyed and tousled looking Natasha. 

“Do you remember sleep, Steve? I keep wondering if I dreamt it, but I would need to sleep to do that. Was it just my imagination?”

“Doesn’t sound too familiar,” he deadpanned. “Hallucination maybe?”

“I miss my bed, Cap.”

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Since SHIELD’s dissolution, the remaining Avengers had been surprisingly busy. He didn’t know what strings Stark and Hill were pulling to keep them in action but he was starting to wish they’d let up. Hydra was badly fractured, but there were operational cells all over the world, and they’d recently uncovered some grisly biological experiments courtesy of AIM that made Wanda and Pietro look like a science fair project.

He could see his team beginning to run ragged around the edges. Using her powers at these levels of frequency and intensity was really taking a toll on Wanda and as much as Clint boasted of his super-human aim, his strength and endurance were beginning to flag. Sam was stoic, of course, but Steve could see the exhaustion behind his eyes. Oddly, Natasha seemed to be almost the opposite. She would join Hawkeye in his laments but she moved without stiffness .

As for Steve himself, the worst of it was his nerves. His relationship with Stark could at best be called “strained”, and Tony still seemed to relish in instigating tension. 

The door of the elevator slid open and when she stepped out Natasha stopped so abruptly Steve bumped into her.

He was about to ask her what she was doing when he saw that two women were waiting in the hallway. Pepper Potts was apparently offering a tour of the facility to a brunette in a smartly tailored business suit. Steve didn't need an introduction, nor would anyone with a passing interest in recent US military history (or in the US Super Soldier programs). He resisted the urge to put a comforting hand on Natasha's shoulder.

"And here are two of big hitters now! Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff," Pepper said in a gentle voice. "Meet Elizabeth Ross. She’ll be working as our new PR officer."

There wasn't a hint of guile or malice in Ross's voice when she reached out a hand, and Pepper had introduced her as Natasha but Steve saw instantly that she was meeting *the Black Widow*. Her professional personality had fallen across her like a cloak. Steve wondered if Ross could see it or if it was his friendship with Natasha that showed him the difference. 

"Ms. Ross. a pleasure."

Nat took the proffered hand. Her tone was the definition of civility; her face a pleasant mask. Betty clasped her hand warmly in both of her own.

"Betty, please. The pleasure is mine. I'm quite an admirer of yours. A woman excelling in a male dominated field like yours. You’re an inspiration." 

Steve saw Betty's message hit home instantly. Natasha accepted the peace offering with grace and a genuine smile touched her lips at the compliment. They held each others' gazes, communicating clearly in silence. When the moment ended Betty turned to Steve and offered her hand again. 

"Captain Rogers. I have to admit," she addressed the group, "I'm a little star-struck" 

Steve smiled. He was instantly taken by Betty's sincerity. Not to mention her reaction to meeting Natasha. 

“The pleasure’s mine, Betty. We’re all happy to have you here to take some of the burden from Pepper's shoulders.”

“If it’s not too much to ask, Captain, I’d like to take some of your time to talk about how you...manage your abilities?”

 _In a professional or personal capacity?_ Steve wondered. All the current Avengers knew about Betty Ross and the Hulk serum. With the potential for inter-personal conflict out of the way, Steve’s mind turned to the potential advantage of having a Hulk on the team who could more completely retain her human faculties.  
“Anything I can do to help.”

Pepper was beaming with relief.

"Well, I'm afraid you'll have to continue your consultation another time; I have to steal Betty away for a meeting." 

"Of course. Ms. Ross," Steve nodded politely. 

Betty shook his hand again and offered Natasha another dazzling smile.

"I'm glad to finally meet you, Agent Romanoff." 

"Likewise."

As the two women strolled away, Steve watched Nat's face for a reaction.

"Well that was..."

"Nice," she said quietly. 

She glanced up at him. "Horrifying for about five seconds, but then really nice." 

He grinned and squeezed her shoulder. She allowed it. 

When they stepped through the briefing room doors, Steve could practically feel Tony buzzing with curiosity. He rolled his eyes and Tony beamed.

"I looked around for a glass to hold against the wall, but..." He rapped his knuckles against the panelling with a metallic clang. 

"There's the downside to being a paranoid obsessive," Natasha said coolly, striding past him to sit. 

"You're only paranoid if everyone *isnt* out to get you." 

Natasha made a dubious sound.

"Constant vigilance! Now enough about my personal weirdness, spill. I don't see any nail marks. How awkward was it? I can't believe I missed a catfight right in my own hallway."

"Well then I'm happy to report that all you missed was two grown women behaving like adults."

Steve took a seat at the table, grinning at Tony. 

"Next time hopefully you'll be able to observe, maybe take some notes."

"If you're just about done salivating over my personal life maybe we could get down to the briefing about the actual mission?"

"First of all you guys are absolutely no fun. Second, we're still waiting on Barton."

That alone gave Steve an idea of what they were dealing with. He, Natasha and Barton working together on anything implied covert ops. The fact that they were meeting with Stark and not Hill told Steve something else. This was potentially either a low priority engagement or something related directly to Stark and the Iron Man suit. Or perhaps even something personal? 

From across the table, Nat was watching Steve intently. He raised an eyebrow at her and she snickered.

"Anything you two would like to share with the class?" Tony asked archly. He hated to be left out of the joke. 

"I just like watching the gears working," Natasha replied with a smile. 

“Not sure I’ve ever seen the gears NOT working. Friday? Gimme an ETA on Agent Barton.”

“Agent Barton is limping into Briefing room C,” Barton grumbled from the doorway. Steve could see he was still hurting from their recent deployment. 

“Take a seat, old man, before you break a hip,” Nat said cheerfully.

“Oh ho ho, you calling me old?”

When Barton plunked down into the chair beside her, Natasha nudged him with an elbow. He made a show of grimacing and groaning in pain. 

“Welp, now that we’ve rounded up the usual suspects let’s get down to business.”

A surprisingly serious look clouded Tony’s face. 

“You all recall my lovely interaction with Aldrich Killian and AIM. His little production of Mandarin Live In Miami. Maybe you also recall my personal greatest hit, Kidnapped and Exploded But Still A Super Genius Live in Afghanistan? So you may remember that the Ten Rings Killian used as a front for AIM sounds suspiciously like the Ten Rings that captured me to steal the Jericho missile project.”

“Almost exactly the same, to a layman,” Steve said. Of course he’d done his homework. He’d read everything he could get his hands on about his Avengers team mates, from Google to whatever SHIELD personnel files and mission reports he could get his hands on. What he didn’t have was the same elaborate international network of black ops and underworld sources that he was sure Tony, Barton and Nat had at their disposal. He felt he was behind the curve already.

"All my people could tell me was that the Mandarin videos seemed legit, but that it wasn't their style to be so public," Clint said, leaning forward on his elbows. "The whole point of a group like the Ten Rings is to be underground."

"They've got every bejeweled finger in a different pie, but all on the down low," Natasha agreed. "Muddies the waters, makes them even harder to find. No one knows who the Mandarin is. People can't even agree on whether he's one person, whether it's a title held by the rings' leader,   
or whether the 'ten rings' represent a cartel of figures responsible for different things."

"After Trevor Slattery's arrest and kidnapping, some people suspected he really *was* the real Mandarin; that he had some of his people stage the doc to get him out of prison. "But that's just what the papers are saying," Steve added. "People in the know don’t agree?"

Natasha shook her head, tossing red curls out of her face. 

"That would discount Killian's involvement, and his thing with Tony and Stark industries was obviously very real and very personal. No one thinks the Mandarin and the Rings would come out of hiding just for Tony and the Extremis project."

"Hey..." Tony began, but Steve interjected, sensing an ego trip.

 

"So the whole terrorist organisation thing doesn't hold water?" 

"I'm just saying I *am* Iron Man and everything..."

"It's just really not their style. They've never surfaced completely for anything like a terrorist attack in the seventy odd years SHIELD has been watching them. Sure they're opportunists like with Tony in Afghanistan..."

"...kind of a big deal? Iron Man? No?"

Natasha rolled her eyes and continued.

"They’re all over the map. The cartels in Mexico and Central America, The Golden Triangle, The Commission, the Rakhimovs, Silk Road, ShadowCrew; drugs, assassinations, human trafficking, smuggling, but all hush hush. Nothing so splashy as what Killian tried to pin on them, and people don't just drop dime on a source or a contact in the Ten Rings without getting reduced to a greasy paste."

Steve frowned.

"Not a lot of details there."

"Exactly," Tony cut in. "And that's why Acting Director Hill and I think it's time we dedicated some of our considerable resources to real time intelligence gathering." 

Natasha cut her eyes at him.

"Real time..?"

"Sure, some good old fashioned leg work. We've got a lead on a Ten Rings recruitment camp on the east coast..."

"So the plan here is to infiltrate the Cult of Ten Rings? One of the most notorious, secretive, far-reaching crime syndicates on the planet?" Steve asked dubiously

"That is correct."

"We’re talking about breaking through impenetrable security to lie to dozens of actual cultists in possession of advanced military grade weapons and risking torture and death if we’re discovered?" 

"You’ve got the gist of it, yes.”

"And not even a single super Nazi or chemically altered sentient plant or crazy broken cyborg?" Clint's eyes were sparkling. "Men with guns, Nat. Remember men with guns? They shoot at us, we shoot at them, almost nobody can fly or teleport or drain all the blood from a human being with a thought?"

There was a dreamy look on Natasha’s face and Steve couldn't suppress a laugh.

"No aliens, no apocalypse. Just...men with guns." 

"Alright," Steve said. "This seems like a pretty bad idea but you’ve got two of the best covert agents around to handle it. What do you need me for?"

"Strategy, old fella. Hill has a pretty high opinion of you, and so did the director WHEN HE WAS ALIVE WHICH HE IS CURRENTLY NOT TO MY KNOWLEDGE! And we need someone to oversee and organise this whole situation from here."

No one really knew how he kept in contact with Fury, but Steve suspected Fury was involved in keeping the Avengers working seemingly without government oversight. And he understood from the mention of his name that this operation was coming from him rather than Tony or Hill alone. 

Barton looked at him and opened his hands over the tabletop.

"Well, Cap? Ready to become an honorary member of strike team delta?"

Steve turned to Natasha.

"C'mon, Steve. It'll be fun," she said with a wicked grin. Steve knew even if he had a choice there was no way he was saying no to that.

"All right," he said with a shrug. "Strike team delta, assemble, I guess."


End file.
